Xiamen to build second airport

June 18, 2014

A new airport will be developed in the southeast Chinese city of Xiamen.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has chosen Dadeng Island in the city's Xiang'an district – just a few kilometers from Taiwan's Kinmen Island – as the location for Xiamen's second airport.

According to Iport Group, a state-owned company which currently runs four airports in Fujian province, including Xiamen's Gaoqi International Airport, the first phase the new airport will have two runways and a 540,000m² terminal, handling 45 million passengers per year.

Construction is scheduled to start in 2016, with work expected to be completed in 2020.

The new airport is intended to ease the congestion at Gaoqi International Airport. At current growth rates, Xiamen's existing airport will have to cope with 30m passengers by 2020, far exceeding the capacity of the single-runway airport.

Xiamen Airlines is one of China's fastest-growing carriers, with outstanding orders for more than 100 aircraft and plans to launch long-haul flights to the US.